Dr. Sylvia M. Asay is a 2019 Fulbright Specialist Program at the Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, with the Psychology Department, Centre for Public Mental Health.

University of Gadjah Mada (UGM) and Dr. Sylvia Asay, Professor at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, successfully completed their initial collaboration on family strengthening initiative through the Fulbright Specialist Program. 

From January 7-18, 2020, Dr. Asay and the Psychology Department, Centre for Public Mental Health of UGM had run several programs focusing on family strengthening to support the department’s effort to address the current Yogyakarta government policy initiative. Dr. Asay was invited to meet with the Governor of Yogyakarta, Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono X, and some government officials of the Yogyakarta province to discuss family strengthening.  She also met with the Deputy of Family from the National Family Planning Body and his staff for a consultation on the framework for a new government program on family happiness/well-being.

She gave a lecture to the students in the Psychology Department on Family Violence. In addition to it, she provided a two-day workshop for government officers from the region to introduce the Family Strength Framework and its potential for use in Family Life Education, Family Therapy, and Family Services. She also provided a two-day workshop for researchers and psychologists for training in using the Family Strengths Framework in their work.

“Dr. Asay provided awareness of the Family Strengths perspective to a variety of stakeholders within the university, the government and the public”, one of her counterparts at the Centre for Public Mental Health of UGM said. 

She further said that Dr. Asay also provided specific strategies for incorporating the perspective within a policy, education, and services.  This is especially important to the government as they continue to work on a current initiative to strengthen families within the region. In addition to the individual meetings with stakeholders, the lecture and workshops totaled over 250 participants.

Dr. Asay believes that her time was well used and that the activities she and the UGM had agreed on met the objective of the short-term project that UGM initiated through the Fulbright Specialist Program. 

“There could be many opportunities to continue to collaborate with this University in the future”, Dr. Asay said. 

“I met with the Director of International Education at the University Gadjah Mada on behalf of the International Education Director at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.  This meeting was positive in beginning a cooperative agreement between the two universities in student exchange”, she added.

Plans are being developed between the two campuses for two-week summer programs that may be of interest to the undergraduate and graduate students of her home university.